New York City proposal would force stores to keep cigarettes out of sight of customers

Associated Press

Published 10:52 pm, Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Walk into any convenience store or gas station in the country and chances are the cigarettes will be in roughly the same spot: at eye level, right behind the cash register.

That's no coincidence. Tobacco companies have worked hard, and paid handsomely, to ensure that cigarette displays occupy the retail equivalent of prime real estate. In 2010 alone, the industry made $370 million in payments to retailers to help lock down prime shelving space, according to a report last year by the Federal Trade Commission. It spent an additional $107 million on in-store advertising.

"Every consumer-product goods manufacturer in the country wants to be there," said Kurt M. Ribisl, a professor at the University of North Carolina who studies tobacco marketing. "People making chips and Doritos and Pepsi — all of these companies want that space. But the tobacco industry wins."

Now, that supremacy could be in jeopardy in one of the nation's biggest cigarette markets.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a bill this week that would force retailers to keep cigarettes out of public view until a customer asks for a pack.

The rule would effectively require merchants to keep tobacco products in closed cabinets or drawers, rather than on the colorful displays, dubbed "power walls," that are familiar just about everywhere in the U.S.

A second bill would take aim at the system of discounts and incentives that manufacturers have long used to woo retail customers and keep merchants happy. It would ban coupons and buy-one-get-one-free promotions for tobacco products and eliminate deep discounts by creating a price floor for each pack.

It is too early to tell whether either measure will survive the legislative process or an almost-certain court challenge. Tobacco companies and convenience store owners have assailed both proposals as unfair and maybe unconstitutional. An industry lawsuit forced the New York village of Haverstraw to quickly rescind a similar ban enacted last April.

Even more unclear is whether the policy would actually lead to fewer people smoking.

A number of nations, including Ireland, Canada and Australia, have restricted retail tobacco displays, but most experts say the policies haven't been in place long enough to know whether they have had a strong impact.